Thailand's casino gamble
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Thailand’s government has long been wary of opening up the country to gambling, imposing major restrictions on betting.
Small-scale, illicit gambling is widespread in the country but now politicians want to liberalise the industry and allow casinos to set up shop.
The goal is to promote tourism, but opponents argue that the gambling business is incompatible with Thai culture, which is largely rooted in Buddhist values that frown upon betting.
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Presented and produced by Ed Butler
(Picture: Protesters in Chaing Mai, Thailand, in April 2025, seen holding placards during a demonstration to protest the government's draft entertainment complex bill at The Phae Gate. On 13 January 2025, the Thai Cabinet approved a draft bill, setting the stage for the legalisation of casino gambling in entertainment complexes across the country. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi there, I'm Ed Butler and welcome to Business Daily here on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:10.4 | Today you find me in a Buddhist temple in Thailand, south of the capital, Bangkok. |
| 0:17.2 | People are burning incense, they're making offerings, they're shaking sticks to discover their fortune, lighting incense. |
| 0:25.3 | They're monks in orange robes around me. |
| 0:28.8 | Now one of the five precepts of Buddhism is no intoxication and no gambling. |
| 0:36.1 | Many ties take those precepts very seriously. |
| 0:39.2 | Many, but not all. |
| 0:45.0 | I wanted to play just for fun. |
| 0:48.4 | That's how it began. |
| 0:49.4 | And I would spend 50% of my salary on gambling, which was a lot. |
| 0:53.2 | I couldn't manage my finances. |
| 0:58.2 | I won three times already. |
| 0:59.9 | I like it very much because even poor people can become rich. |
| 1:04.1 | Yes, even though many forms of it are illegal in Thailand, |
| 1:08.1 | gambling has become a bit of a way of life for millions of ties. And there |
| 1:13.4 | are problems that come with that. So how are they feeling about government plans now to liberalise |
| 1:20.0 | the industry? That's Business Daily here on the BBC. So I come here and I buy my ticket. |
| 1:34.0 | Government price about 80 bucks per ticket. |
| 1:38.0 | Along with my fixer Mao, I've come to one of Bangkok's bustling markets |
| 1:42.5 | to test my luck at one of the world's most popular national lotteries. |
| 1:48.7 | The clicking noise is dozens of women stapling their remaining lottery tickets onto display boards. |
| 1:54.8 | It's just hours left till the draw, which happens on the first and 16th of each month. |
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